Apaddharmanushasana Parva — The most important duties

Yudhishthira said O grandfather, O you of virtuous soul, what, indeed, yields great merit for a person assiduously engaged in the study of the Vedas and desirous of gaining virtue.

That which yields in this world high merit is of various kinds as described in the scriptures. Tell me, O grandfather, about what is regarded as such both in this world and in the next.

The path of duty is long and has numberless branches, O Bharata. Amongst those duties what are those few which should, in your opinion, be observed in preference to all others?

Tell me, O king, fully about that which is so vast and which has so many branches.

Bhishma said I shall describe to you that by which you may acquire high merit. Wise as you are, you will be satisfied with the knowledge I will impart to you, like a person gratified with having drunk ambrosia.

The rules of duty described by the great Rishis, each depending upon his own wisdom, are many. The highest among them all is selfcontrol.

Those amongst the ancient Rishis that were acquainted with truth said that self-control, leads to the highest merit. Self-control is the eternal duty of the Brahmanas especially.

It is from self-control that he acquires the due fruition of his acts. Self-control of surpasses (in merit) charity and sacrifice and study of the Vedas.

Self-control increases (his) energy. Selfcontrol is highly sacred. Through self-control a man becomes purified of all his sins and gifted with energy, and therefore, acquires the highest blessedness.

We have not heard that there is any other duty in all the worlds equal to self-control. Self-control, according to all virtuous persons, is the highest virtues in this world.

Through self-control, O foremost of men, a person enjoys the highest happiness both in this world and in the next. Gifted with self-control, one wins great virtue.

The self-controlled man sleeps in happiness and awakes in happiness, and moves through the world in happiness. His mind is always cheerful.

The man who is without self-control always suffers misery. Such a man brings upon himself many calamities all begotten by his own faults.

It has been said that in all the four modes of life self-control is the best of vows. I shall now describe to you the characteristic marks the sum-total of which is called self-control.

Forgiveness, patience, abstention from injury, impartiality, truth, sincerity, control of the senses, cleverness, mildness, modesty, firmness, liberality, freedom from anger, contentment, sweetness of words, benevolence, freedom from malice, all these combined make up self-control.

It also consists, O son of Kuru, of respect for the preceptor and mercy for all. The selfcontrolled man avoids both adulation and slander. Depravity, infamy, falsehood, lust, covetousness, pride, arrogance, self-edification, fear, envy, and disrespect, are all shunned by the self-controlled man.

He never incurs obloquy. He is free from envy. He is never satisfied with trivial acquisitions. He is like the ocean which can never be filled.

The self-controlled man is never fettered by the attachments originating from earthly connections and sentiments like these,-'I am yours, You are yours. They are in me, and I am in them.

Such a man who follows the practices of either cities or the woods, and who never vilifies others nor indulges in adulation, acquires liberation.

Practising universal friendliness, and virtuous conduct, and possessed of cheerful spirit and psychic knowledge, and freed from the various attachments of the Earth, a person acquires great reward in the next world.

Of excellent behaviour and observant of duties, cheerful and endued with learning and knowledge of self, such a man acquires esteem while in this world and attains to a high end hereafter.

All acts that are considered as good on Earth,-all those acts that are practised by the righteous, form the path of the ascetic endued with knowledge. A person that is good never transgresses that path.

Retiring from the world, and living in the woods, that learned person, having a complete mastery over the senses who treads in that path, expecting his own demise, is sure to acquire the state of Brahma.

He who has no fear of any creature, and whom no creature fears, has, after, the dissolution of his body, no fear to meet.

He who exhausts his merits without trying to hoard them up, who considers all creatures equally and cherishes friendship for the entire universe, attains to Brahma.

As the route of birds along the sky or of fowl over the surface of water cannot be made out, so the path of such a person (on Earth) does not attract notice.

O king, many bright worlds await him for eternal enjoyment, who renouncing his domestic life, adopts the religious course of emancipation. acts,

If abandoning all abandoning penances in due time, leaving off the various branches of study, in fact, leaving off all things, one becomes pure in his desires, freed from all restraints, of cheerful soul, conversant with self, and of pure heart, he then acquires esteem in this world and at last attains to heaven.

That eternal region of the grandfather which originates from Vedic penances, and which is concealed in a cave, can only be acquired by self-control.

He who finds pleasure in true knowledge, who has become enlightened, and who never injures any creature, has no fear of returning to this world, not to speak of any fear from the other.

There is only one fault in self-control. No second fault is seen in it. A person who has self-control is considered by men as weak and imbecile.

you of great wisdom, this attribute has only one defect. Its merits are many. By forgiveness, the man of self-control may easily acquire numberless worlds.

Of what use is forest to a man of selfcontrol. Likewise, O Bharata, of what use is the forest to him that has no self-control? That is a forest where the man of self-control lives, and that is even a sacred asylum.

Hearing these words of Bhishina, Yudhishthira became highly pleased as if he had drunk nectar.

Again the king asked that foremost of virtuous men. That perpetuator of Kuru's race once more began to discourse cheerfully on the subject.